Last month Te Pānui Rūnaka published the image below and requested information be provided about the location and people in the photograph. This image is part of the Trevor Howse Collection in the Ngāi Tahu Archives. We would like to thank and acknowledge Mariana Phillips, Te Rahui Denny, Pauline Crofts and Joy Smith, Helen Brown and Myra Manihera for their assistance and input in providing the following (those names that differed have a question mark after their last names).
Left to Right: Norma?, Magda Hopkinson?/Julie Grennell?, Suzie Crofts?/Poppy Crofts?/Mania Pitama?, Sylvia Harris in the hat and coat, Unidentified gentleman in dark coat, Hori Brennan, Rima Bell wearing the korowai, Unidentified man, Johnno Crofts (obscured), Maud ? behind Aunty Rima, Unidentified man looking to the side, Huia Holmes, June Briggs (obscured), Ruahine Crofts, Ramari Brennan. The gentlemen in front could possibly be Lord Louis Mountbatten?
We have also been advised of an old film from the archives of Open Images titled KLM Douglas DC-6A Liftmaster – “London to Christchurch Air Race” – 1953 – which includes scenes from the event that this image was taken. The film can be seen on YouTube using this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROwg_Uy-IEk.
If you have any further information to share about this, or any of the Whakaahua Tīpuna/Whānau images we have published, please do not hesitate to contact either Tania Nutira or Robyn Walsh, Ngāi Tahu Archives Unit on 0800 KAI TAHU (0800 524 8428). Kia ora.
February back cover.